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I just saw this article from the star tribune.

Minnesota law can help postpone home foreclosure

The legal tool took effect June 15, but for borrowers facing imminent sheriff's foreclosure sales, timing is everything.

When Dan Carlson heard last week that a state law scarcely a week old allowed people facing sheriff's foreclosure sales to postpone them for five months, he jumped into action.

With the sheriff's sale on his Greenfield home just a week away, he and his wife, Kathy, filled out a sworn statement, then filed it with the Hennepin County recorder.

With that, the couple became one of the first in the state to use the new legal tool to try to stave off foreclosure.

But Carlson wasn't able to block his sheriff's sale. The law requires the affidavit be filed two weeks before a foreclosure sale, and it's so new that Carlson didn't hear about it in time. Their home was sold Tuesday, though state law allows them to stay for six more months.

"If a year or two ago someone would say I'd be in this position, I would have laughed," Carlson said. "Well, welcome to reality."

Amber Hawkins, an attorney he contacted, is hoping that publicity about the law, which took effect June 15, will help others facing imminent foreclosure sales to act in time to save their homes.

"I'm certainly going to recommend that a lot of my clients do it," said Hawkins, an attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis. "I think it's a great tool for the right person."

Checks with eight metro-area counties found Hennepin and Sherburne counties already reporting one filing apiece, while there have been at least four in Anoka.

"I think it's going to be used," said state Rep. Joe Mullery, DFL-Minneapolis, who got the law passed despite what he said was resistance from committee chairs in his own party to giving it a hearing.

Normally, property sold in foreclosure proceedings may be redeemed by the owner if the full loan amount is paid off within six months after the sale.